{"id":464221,"date":"2026-05-24T02:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464221\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T02:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T02:14:14","slug":"france-bans-israels-ben-gvir-after-unspeakable-flotilla-detainee-taunts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/464221\/","title":{"rendered":"France bans Israel\u2019s Ben-Gvir after \u2018unspeakable\u2019 flotilla detainee taunts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>France has banned Israel\u2019s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing his \u201cunspeakable\u201d behaviour targeting activists from a flotilla to Gaza who were detained by his police force.<\/p>\n<p>Jean-Noel Barrot, the French foreign minister, announced the ban in a post on X. He said: \u201cAs of today, Itamar Ben-Gvir is banned from entering French territory. This decision follows his unspeakable actions toward French and European citizens who were passengers on the Global Sumud Flotilla.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot tolerate that French nationals can be threatened, intimidated or brutalised in this way \u2014 all the more so by a public official.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/france-bans-israel-s-ben-gvir-after-unspeakable-flotilla-detainee-taunts.jpg\" alt=\"Sweden NATO\" data-title=\"Sweden NATO\" data-copyright-holder=\"AP\" data-copyright-notice=\"\" data-credit=\"Johan Nilsson\" data-usage-terms=\"This content is intended for editorial use only. For other uses, additional clearances may be required.\"\/>Foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot has announced that Israel\u2019s Itamar Ben-Gvir will be banned from France (Johan Nilsson\/TT News Agency via AP)<\/p>\n<p>Mr Barrot called on the European Union to also sanction Mr Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press has sought comment from Mr Ben-Gvir\u2019s spokesperson and the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n<p>This week, Mr Ben-Gvir sparked global outrage after promoting a video of himself taunting detained flotilla activists.<\/p>\n<p>In one clip, he is seen waving a large Israeli flag over hunched-over detainees whose hands appear to be bound.<\/p>\n<p>In another, he taunts a kneeling detainee whose wrists are zip-tied, yelling \u201cAm Yisrael Chai\u201d at him \u2014 Hebrew for \u201cThe nation of Israel lives\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In a third, detainees can be seen \u2014 foreheads to the floor of an outdoor pen \u2014 as the Israeli national anthem plays and armed guards encircle them.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:<br \/>\u201cIsrael has every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our territorial waters and reaching Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>However, the way that Minister Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IsraeliPM\/status\/2057095673669918753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Foreign leaders \u2014 and even coalition partner Mr Netanyahu \u2014 condemned Mr Ben-Gvir\u2019s on-camera treatment of some 430 flotilla detainees.<\/p>\n<p>In his post, the French minister was also critical of flotilla activists, who were attempting to breach Israel\u2019s naval blockade of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe disapprove of this flotilla\u2019s approach, which produces no useful effect and places an additional burden on diplomatic and consular services,\u201d Mr Barrot wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The flotilla of 50 boats was intercepted in international waters some 250 miles off the coast of Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Detained activists accused Israeli forces of mistreatment, describing beatings, tasers and attack dogs.<\/p>\n<p>Poland has also barred Mr Ben-Gvir, announcing a five-year-ban on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the democratic world we do not abuse and gloat over people in custody,\u201d Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France has banned Israel\u2019s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing his \u201cunspeakable\u201d behaviour targeting activists from a flotilla&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-464221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}